Sure, you can still order the Nexus One through wireless carriers in the U.K., Italy, and Australia, among a few other places, but six markets do not represent a healthy ecosystem. Google once again Friday refused to state how many phones it sold during its brief tenure as a phone retailer.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said Google doesn't plan on making any other Nexus devices, having apparently achieved everything it wanted with the Nexus One, despite announcing plans in January to make a family of devices. It's not exactly clear what Schmidt meant by that statement, unless Google really believes that phones like the Evo, the Droid Incredible, and the other Android phones currently in the market would never have been dreamt up by their makers were it not for the Nexus One project, or that some new era of phone purchasing has sprung up entirely unnoticed by, well, everyone.

Google's Nexus One was 6 months old. It is survived by the millions and millions of Google Android-based phones sold by its partners that are the devices putting real competitive pressure on Apple in the smartphone market.

About the author

Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
See full bio